Delhi polls: BJP focuses on intensive outreach in 30 Dalit-dominated seats

The BJP is hopeful of "markedly improving" its performance in Dalit-dominated constituencies of the city on the basis of a sustained and focussed outreach campaign spread over months ahead of the February 5 assembly polls, party leaders said.

The party failed to win even one of the 12 SC (scheduled castes) reserved constituencies in the assembly polls held in 2015 and 2020. In previous elections too, the BJP never won more than two-three of these seats.

There are 30 assembly constituencies in Delhi, including 12 reserved for SC candidates, in which the Dalit community voters range from 17 to 45 per cent, according to Delhi BJP leaders.

Apart from the 12 reserved constituencies, there are 18 other seats with up to 25 percent SC community votes, including Rajender Nagar, Chandni Chowk, Adarsh Nagar, Shahdara, Tughalaqbad, Bijwasan, where the BJP and its SC Morcha worked in the past several months, they said.

An elaborate outreach campaign through SC workers was conducted in the slums and unauthorised colonies of these 30 constituencies in the last few months.

Delhi BJP SC Morcha president Mohan Lal Gihara said senior SC workers were deputed as "Vistarak" (expanders) in all these 30 constituencies for a focused outreach among the community members.

The 'Vistarak' further deputed 10 Dalit youth on each of the polling booths for person-to-person contact in various localities and residential areas in these constituencies, he said.

The party has identified more than 5,600 such polling booth out of which special focus was paid on over 1,900 booths.

The entire exercise of interacting with voters and explaining them works done for the community by the Modi government and "failures" of AAP in its 10 year rule involved a network of over 18,000 active workers, party leaders said.

In the second level of outreach, the party roped in 55 big Dalit leaders of the party, including former Union ministers and MPs from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, MP and Haryana. Marathon round of meetings were held in these constituencies, they said.

Further, around 3,500 prominent community leaders, identified as key voters having political influence in their neighbourhoods, were contacted to deepen the outreach.

The party started holding "SC Swabhiman Sammelan" in these constituencies to felicitate the political influencers, professionals, achievers and prominent locals of the community, starting from December.

"So far 15 such conventions have been held and in each a senior BJP leader is present. A lot of support of the community was visible in these large meetings that were attended by 1,500-2,500 common members of the Dalit community," Gihara said.

Each of these participants were sent personal invitations to join these meetings, in a bid to strengthen their feeling of "self-respect" and bond with the party, he said.

Voting for 70 Assembly constituencies in Delhi will be held on February 5. Results will be declared after counting of votes on February 8.

The BJP was routed by the Aam Aadmi Party that also won all the Dalit-dominated seats in 2015 and 2020. The saffron party has been out of power in the city since 1998.